Pleiades (M45), also known as the Seven Sisters; able to see hint of interstellar dust cloud illuminated as blue by the stars but unrelated to the stars themselves; some high cloud distortion. 15 Feb 2015 — in Estes Park, Colorado.

Gold star lower left center is Betelgeuse, left shoulder of Orion; bright star bottom left (below and about 5:00 position from Betelgeuse) is Bellatrix, right shoulder of Orion; far bottom left aligned three stars is Orion's belt; center left is M35 open cluster; bright star middle right is Capella — in Estes Park, Colorado.

M45 Pleiades (Seven Sisters) bottom left; top left middle star is Capella; bright star of middle left open cluster is Mirfak; the blurry object just to the center left of the sloping hill bottom right is the Andromeda Galaxy — in Estes Park, Colorado.

Gold star lower left center is Betelgeuse, left shoulder of Orion; bright star bottom left is Bellatrix, right shoulder of Orion; center left is M35 open cluster; bright star middle right is Capella — in Estes Park, Colorado.

Tried to capture Comet 45p, the 2016/2017 New Years Comet, with my DSLR but in the field I was unable to identify the object on my camera review screen. The moon was really washing out my search for the comet and I never saw it while taking the photos. Shortly thereafter when I reviewed the photos on my computer screen I saw that I had indeed captured the comet, but it is very dim (pointed out by arrow). If I had seen it from my location at Castlewood Canyon just south of Franktown I would have zoomed to the object and tried to capture a better shot of it. Oh well - it is coming back in early 2017, maybe I'll give it another try and hopefully the moon will not affect my shots! The object on the far right is an airplane caught in motion.